


Bury Every Clue

by outruntheavalanche



Series: all our bits and precious bobs [4]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Childhood Friends, Community: tfa_kink, Gen, Jossed, Not Beta Read, POV Child, Rey Skywalker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-18
Updated: 2016-01-18
Packaged: 2018-05-14 18:51:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5754382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/outruntheavalanche/pseuds/outruntheavalanche
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Rey is four when her daddy finally lets her join him at the academy.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bury Every Clue

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [this prompt](http://nullrefer.com/?http://tfa-kink.dreamwidth.org/1841.html?thread=1713969#cmt1713969) at [](http://tfa-kink.dreamwidth.org/profile)[**tfa_kink**](http://tfa-kink.dreamwidth.org/): **Finn and Rey were children who got spared by the knights of Ren. Rey because Luke saved her but, Kylo got to Finn before Luke could save him. Kylo put Finn in the stormtrooper training because he wasn't force sensitive enough to be trained as a jedi. They both got memories suppressed.**
> 
> This doesn't quite fit the prompt 100%.
> 
> (Sam was Finn's original name in earlier drafts of the screenplay.)
> 
> Title from "Strings That Tie to You," by Jon Brion.
> 
> Re. their ages: I've placed the Jedi student massacre about 13 years before the events of the movie (Finn is 23 and Rey is 19). That would also make Poe about 19 and Ben/Kylo 16/17 here too. Probably will be Joss'd in Episode 8.

_so i'll bury every clue_  
_and every kind of memory_  
_with strings that tie to you_

* * *

Rey is four when her daddy finally lets her join him at the academy. She doesn't get to stay there like Ben does. Ben is older than her. He is tall and he wears a black cape. Ben is her cousin. Rey is jealous that Ben gets to see her daddy more than she does.

***

Rey is five when she meets Sam. He’s older than her, but he treats her nicer than the other older kids do. Sam has brown skin and curly black hair, and he’s a whole lot taller than her. Ben doesn’t let her tag along anymore because he’s got new friends to play with. Daddy doesn’t like them. Rey thinks that’s why Ben plays with them.

There’s another boy too. His name is Poe. He’s way older than Ben, but not as tall. His mama is a pilot. She likes him because he gives her candy when Daddy isn’t looking. Daddy is strict about candy. Rey gets her hands and face all sticky, and Daddy sighs when he sees her. He doesn’t yell, he never yells. He cleans her face off and wipes her hands. He tells Poe he shouldn’t give her anymore candy. 

Poe winks at her like they’re sharing a secret, even though Daddy can see. “It’ll be our little secret,” Poe says.

Rey laughs. She likes Poe because he still sneaks her candy even though Daddy said she couldn’t have any more. She also likes Poe because he is the only person who still talks to Ben. Daddy doesn’t even talk to Ben anymore.

***

When Rey is six, she has a vision. She sees Ben in a black cape, with an ugly red lightsaber. There is rain and mud, and dead bodies everywhere. Rey looks at Ben, standing in the rain with his hair stuck to the sides of his face, and knows he did it.

She doesn’t see Daddy anywhere.

Then Ben lifts his ’saber and marches toward Rey. His face is twisted and ugly, like a snarling animal. Ben’s ’saber hums.

Rey screams and bolts upright in her bed. There’s a noise in the bunk under hers and Sam pokes his head out. He blinks up at her and frowns.

“Do you need Master Luke?” Sam asks. “Are you hurt?”

“No. I had a nightmare,” Rey says, gulping huge breaths. Her heart thumps wildly in her chest. “I dreamt that everyone died. And Ben was there.”

Sam crawls out of his bunk and climbs up the rickety wooden ladder to rest his chin on Rey’s bedrail. “It’s okay, Rey. I’ll protect you,” he promises, fiercely.

Rey laughs. “You’re my best friend, Sam.” She holds out her pinky finger, waggles it at him, and Sam mimics her, linking their fingers. “Forever?”

“Forever,” Sam says.

***

Rey is still only six when her nightmare becomes real. 

She can hear Ben in one of the dorms. The hum and sizzle of his lightsaber blade. The frightened cries.

She’s hiding under the desk in her room. Sam is out there somewhere, where she can’t protect him. She hopes he’s okay.

Then there are loud rattling footsteps that are getting even louder, and the door swings open.

The room glows faint red. Ben stomps in, shaking rain off his black cape. His hair is wet and tangled against his forehead and the sides of his face. He has blood on his mouth.

“I see you, little cousin,” Ben sneers, and he moves his fingers on the lightsaber handle, and the red clicks away. “I won’t hurt you. Come here.”

“No,” Rey cries, scrambling back against the wall. 

“I said, come here, little cousin.” Ben drops to his knees by the desk and black gloved hands grab for her.

Rey screams and pounds her little fists against those mean grabbing hands.

There are more footsteps then.

“What are you doing? Let her go!”

“Sam!” Rey struggles and kicks and hits as Ben yanks her out from under the desk and squeezes her against his chest.

Ben turns toward the door. Sam stands there, his hands balled into fists. 

“You. You’re coming with me too,” Ben booms. His voice sounds like thunder.

“Run, Sam! Find Daddy!” Rey calls out to him. 

Sam turns to run but Ben lifts a hand and suddenly he stops. His eyes are big and scared as Ben walks over to him, rounds on him, and slowly loosens his fist. Sam’s whole body sags and Ben catches him in his arm too.

Ben carries both of them out of the dorm into the rain, to a big, ugly, black ship.

***

This place is hot and sandy, and Rey doesn’t like it. The hot burns through her thin tunic. When she looks up at the sky, it’s so bright it’s nearly white and blinding. There is a big, gloved hand wrapped around hers, holding tightly. Whenever she tries to jerk away, it just grasps her even more tightly.

“I want Daddy,” Rey says. She jerks on her wrist and the hand squeezes until it hurts.

“You don’t have a father,” says the voice. It is harsh and mean and robotic through the black mask. Its owner is dressed all in black. The black mask is shiny like a new spaceship that hasn't fought in any battles yet.

Rey wails, kicking up sand, trying to dig her heels in. “I wanna go home!”

The tall man just drags her by the arm over to a shabby tent. “This is your home now, little…girl.” 

The man grabs her under the armpits before she can think to run away and thrusts her at someone else. Rey starts screaming when she sees its face. It’s like nothing she’s ever seen before. A monster, with a leathery, squashed up face.

“No! Don’t leave me!” Rey reaches for the tall man. He turns on her, his cape swirling around him like smoke, and marches back to his starship.

The monster grabs her roughly, pulls her back. It says something to her.

Rey watches the starship lift away.

She thinks she sees Sam, his face pressed against a big window. She lifts a hand to him. He reaches back.

And then he’s gone.


End file.
